This description relates to a system and method for initializing metrics for decoding data, such as data encoded with convolutional codes.
For information transmission and reception, various types of error correcting codes have been developed along with corresponding decoding algorithms. To provide strong error correcting capabilities, such codes may call for cumbersome and complex decoders to approach the theoretical limits of data transmission such as channel capacity (referred to as the Shannon limit after Claude Shannon, who introduced the notion in 1948). To reduce complexity, in one technique, multiple relatively straight forward codes, each of which may not individually provide significant error correcting capabilities, are concatenated to produce a longer code that can provide enhanced error correcting capabilities.